Week 5 & 6: Dental Office Management and Scheduling
Over the next 2 weeks we will explore the responsibilities of the dental business assistant and dental office manager. As we learned in week 1, these are a couple of career opportunities for an HOA to consider within the dental industry whose main responsibility is to ensure the office runs efficiently. We will begin by reviewing dental scheduling considerations.
Dental Scheduling
Consider the following:
Time increments/intervals are the units used to book appointments.
- Can be 10, 15 or 30 minutes depending on the preference of the dentist/specialist
- An HOA is responsible for correctly booking the number of time units for each visit
Most dental offices use a style called block scheduling.
- This style sets aside certain days or times within a week for specific types of appointments
- Often used for specialists to book complex or lengthy procedures
- What are the advantages of block scheduling?
- Allows treatment rooms, equipment, and trays to be prepped and ready for complex appointments
- Allows dentist to focus on work activity and provides consistency to week-at-a-glance
- Can you think of some potential disadvantages to this style of scheduling?
Missed appointments are an unfortunate outcome of scheduling.
- It is important that the HOA record all missed appointments in the client’s EMR file
- Most offices will charge a fee that cannot be submitted to private insurance companies for coverage
- What are some ways in which you could help reduce the # of missed appointments at your office?
Recall Systems
How did you book your last dental appointment? Let’s review the 4 common methods an HOA might use to schedule a follow-up appointment for a client.
Dental Office Finances
As a dental business assistant or dental office manager, one of your responsibilities will be overseeing the financial aspects of the office.
Visits to the dentist can be costly. Since many Canadians do not have dental coverage, some clients can have a difficult time covering expenses. Payment plans can be organized in advance of procedures to ensure clients receive the treatment they need while offices are paid for the services they provide.
Unfortunately, accounts can become delinquent when fees are past due.
What can you do as an HOA to prevent accounts from becoming delinquent?
- Inform clients of applicable fees and financial policies before a service is provided
- Discuss a financial agreement or payment plan and ensure dates and amounts are clearly highlighted
- Provide reminders when the due dates are approaching
- Follow-up with clients promptly once accounts become overdue
DBA’s and office managers will also need to keep track of expenses and inventory.
Expenses:
- Fixed: costs that stay the same each month e.g. rent, phone bill, insurance, housekeeping
- Variable: costs that range or differ each month depending on need e.g. office supplies, lab fees, continuing education
Inventory:
- Administrative supplies will need to be tracked and ordered with enough time so staff do not run out
- Supplies may be ordered through a sales rep, online, or through a catalogue
- Ensure dates, quantity, cost, shipping, and alternatives are documented
Fear, Anxiety, and Avoidance
Consider the following scenario:
Your client arrives for their dental appointment and is visibly anxious. They are fidgeting, sweating, and avoiding eye contact. You remember learning that 75% of adults experience fear of the dentist which can lead to avoiding visits, ultimately requiring more painful and complicated procedures down the road. Perhaps your client had a previous traumatic experience (direct experience), or heard horror stories from a friend (indirect experience).
What are 3 actions you can take to positively impact your client’s dental experience?
Medications
Let’s review the commonly prescribed medications in dentistry
Analgesics:
- Non-narcotic: used to treat mild/moderate dental pain e.g. Tylenol, Advil, Aspirin
- Narcotic: used to treat moderate/severe dental pain e.g. Morphine, Codeine, Tylenol 3 *must be prescribed with caution as it can be habit-forming
Anesthetics:
- Topical: numbing agents applied directly to the tissue e.g. over the counter gel, ointment, spray
- Local: numbing injection – most common type of pain control in dentistry e.g. Novocain
- Block injection: numbs entire region of the mouth
- Infiltration injection: numbs a small area of the mouth
Sedation:
- Conscious sedation: produced by oral medications and nitrous oxide gas causing a twilight sleep
- client is responsive but usually does not recall any pain
- IV sedation: intravenous medications causing a controlled unconsciousness
- client will require someone to accompany them to/from the appointment
- General anesthesia: complete unconsciousness
- used for longer procedures
- client must fast for a minimum of 6 hours prior to the procedure
- more expensive
Antibiotics:
- Medications that limit or stop the growth of bacteria e.g. penicillin (Amoxicillin), Erythromycin
- Sometimes used prophylactically (in advance of a procedure) to avoid chance of infection
Since they are so commonly prescribed, watch the video from Rehealthify to learn more about antibiotics.
References
AccountingTools. (2022, November 21). Accounts receivable aging definition. https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/what-is-accounts-receivable-aging.html
Baillargeon, S. (2008). Dental office administration. Thomson Nelson.
Course Hero. (n.d.). Overview of receivables. Boundless accounting. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-accounting/overview-of-receivables/
Rehealthify. (2014, July 21). Antibiotics – what you need to know. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P665Slcmd8o
